Ophtho Residency call

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Hemichordate

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I know this question has been asked before, but the last thread on this was several years ago so I'm curious as to how much things have changed. How often are ophtho residents usually on call (for all 4 years) for most programs? I know a lot of folks make a big deal about lifestyle and the "cush-ness" of this field, but I'm not sure if this is just limited to working as an attending or to residency as well.

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I know this question has been asked before, but the last thread on this was several years ago so I'm curious as to how much things have changed. How often are ophtho residents usually on call (for all 4 years) for most programs? I know a lot of folks make a big deal about lifestyle and the "cush-ness" of this field, but I'm not sure if this is just limited to working as an attending or to residency as well.

It depends on how big the program is and how many hospitals the residents need to cover. More residents == typically less frequent call; more hospitals to cover == typically more frequent call.

To be honest, I wouldn't worry about the lifestyle in Ophthalmology residency. It is generally going to much easier than every other surgical subspecialty. And when you are eventually finished with training, things get significantly easier (e.g. no call in many practice settings).

-OQ
 
To be honest, I wouldn't worry about the lifestyle in Ophthalmology residency. It is generally going to much easier than every other surgical subspecialty. And when you are eventually finished with training, things get significantly easier (e.g. no call in many practice settings).

This. Residency call can suck, but as a general rule is not that bad. Attending call is even better, in most cases. I was on call 3/19-25 and fielded 4 phone calls. That's it, and it's pretty typical.
 
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Thanks for the responses Visionary and Ophthoquestions. Are academic physicians who serve as attendings on call much less frequently than their private practice counterparts? (I'm guessing this varies a lot as well)
 
While I agree that compared to other specialties, call is not as rigorous, it is still quite busy as resident. By reading some of the above posts, one may get the false impression that call is not that bad, which is definitely not true. Most residencies with few exceptions take home call which also propagates a false sense of how easy call is, when in fact, very little of your time is spent at home!

I'll admit, I am not an attending yet so can't speak for how things will slow down in the future, but as far as residency and fellowship, expect to be busy.
 
While I agree that compared to other specialties, call is not as rigorous, it is still quite busy as resident. By reading some of the above posts, one may get the false impression that call is not that bad, which is definitely not true. Most residencies with few exceptions take home call which also propagates a false sense of how easy call is, when in fact, very little of your time is spent at home!

I'll admit, I am not an attending yet so can't speak for how things will slow down in the future, but as far as residency and fellowship, expect to be busy.

Sure, call in residency/fellowship can be busy because basically you are being dumped on by everyone. Plus, you are typically expected by the academic hospital ER and your department to come in to see every patient they call you about. However, those 4-6 years are a small microcosm of your professional career.

As an attending, I do field some telephone calls from the ER. However, these calls are typically from an experienced ER physician (not a resident) who knows what is truly an "emergency". Typically, the ER physician just asks me if the patient can drop by my office the following day. If the patient truly needs to be seen, I always ask the patient to come to my office instead of being examined in the ER.

If you are lucky enough to be in a community with an academic training program, you probably won't even have to worry about open globes, etc. Those cases get immediately sent to the academic center where the residents/fellows take care of those patients. I don't even think most retina guys will do middle-of-the night RD repairs anymore, since they usually can be done first thing in the morning.

Even as a resident, yes, call can be "busy", but it's not the kind of busy I have seen with emergency C-sections or ruptured aorta repairs being performed at 4 am. As an Ophthalmology resident, you might have a stack of 10 consults to do, but usually you can blow through them in a non-chaotic fashion.
 
Agree with the above.

As for home call in residency, while it's generally not that intense, there is a distinct downside to it in comparison to in-house call (which only few ophthalmology residencies have). There's nothing worse than pulling into your driveway at 3 am only to receive a call that takes you right back to where you were. Also, there's no time off after call. If you've been up all night, you're still expected to make lecture/clinic/OR. With home call, the on-duty clock resets every time you leave the hospital, so you technically never have 30+ hour shifts...technically. That said, none of my resident call came close to the call I took on cardiology as an intern. I've never been beaten down so hard as on that unit month. Felt seriously bad for the fellow. He never slept.
 
I would not describe ophtho residency call at most major trauma centers as being easy. We're on call about q5. When you're on "home" call, you're usually awake almost the whole night and then still working the next day; so you can easily do a 30 - 34 hour shift. All the ER transfers from a multi-state area come to you. There aren't that many real emergencies but because ER attendings don't usually know how to identify a true ophtho emergency, they send almost everything your way and you get a lot more transfers than I would have realized as a medstudent.

I didn't do an easy medicine intern year but I would still describe it as being easier than ophtho residency (even more so now, when medicine interns have a 16 hour work limit). All of my co-residents and most of my friends at other large programs feel the same way; so I'm not sure why people think ophtho residency is easy. As far as fellowships I know some fellows (such as oculoplastics) who are on call every day of their entire fellowship; they almost cannot leave the city of their fellowship for 2 years straight and get paid far less than the medicine subspecialty fellows.

Ophtho residency may be easier than many other surgical specialties but I think it's just as hard or harder than most other fields and I think medstudents should know not to expect an amazing lifestyle in residency. As far as the lifestyle as an attending, I can't really say but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
 
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